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Comment by erk__ | Hacker News Reader

This seems strange to me, I don't know the law on the area in Sweden, but in Denmark stores must take cash, though there are a few times where they don't (eg. stores that are late open does not need to take cash between 22 and 06)

I don't know if I can find any English sources but here is one from the ombudsmand in Danish: https://www.forbrugerombudsmanden.dk/hvad-gaelder/betalingst...

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The question was considered by the Swedish Supreme Court a few years ago, and it ruled that stores, transport services and such have no obligation to take cash as long as they clearly advertise they're cashless.

The legal reasoning is based on freedom of contract (avtalsfrihet). The shop has to take cash, but since what the shop does is enter a contract with you (agrees to sell certain goods for a certain price), it can choose to make cashless payment a condition of the contract. The same reasoning gives the shop the freedom to only accept paper bills and not coins for instance.

This doesn't apply to public entities as freedom of contract is much more limited or non-applicable there - a public hospital must allow patients to pay in cash.

If there is a law saying that you have to take cash then I would think that limits freedom of contract, not the other way around. It's not like absolute freedom of contract exists anywhere in the world, at least that I know of, e.g. you can't enter into a contract allowing someone to kill you, sell yourself into slavery etc. Sweden definitely have a lot of other restrictions to freedom of contract such as limitations on what you can agree to in an apartment lease or employment contract.

I was expecting this last time I went to Malmø, but I was surprised to see restaurants in the centre of Helsingborg with "no cash" signs on the door or in the menu.

I think Denmark introduced that law after seeing what had happened in Sweden.

I believe even here it will change. Before that, stores had to take cash (like in Germany) and now they are allowed not to in certain cases and e.g. in Reffen the streetfood stands do not take cash at all, but you can exchange cash for some kind of debit card.

Retail in Denmark does not particularly like to take cash and you can see a lot of signs about "no cash stored after closing" and empty register drawers etc. in Copenhagen. I would expect lots of these stores to switch to cash-only as soon as they can. Such a law happened in Sweden already and you just need to go to Malmö C to see stores not accepting cash at all.

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